Many Russians received their baptism into Australianness through army mateship. This was an Australianness that was in no way solemn but involved things like sharing a drink with mates, playing two-up, giving lip to an NCO -- the sort of thing that often shows up as misconduct in the Russians' service records. For instance, young William Zavodtchikoff, a Siberian Jew, after spending several months in a Queensland depot as a sentry allowed a prisoner, an Australian, to escape from the guardroom. On being detained himself, Zavodtchikoff said to the sergeant of the guard: 'You have put that man in for nothing. Put me in too.' No private in the Russian army, let alone a Jewish private, would ever dare say anything like that.